What Will Flooding Do?

[DADAKOTA]

What is all this flooding going to do to the smallie fishing?

[Al Agnew]

Probably not much. Smallies can handle warm weather floods just fine. The young of the year are big enough by now to survive fairly well, too. You have to remember that river fish evolved to deal with the occasional flood. They're not like hatchery trout. I've seen trout in puddles way out in the bottoms left over from flooding on the upper Current River. As near as I can tell, smallmouth move to areas sheltered from the most powerful currents, like up into the bankside trees and up into slack water areas of feeder streams, but when the water starts dropping they start going with it, getting back into the main channel, and once it gets back down inside its banks they are back safely within the channel.

I'm also convinced that they often feed heavily during the flood. When I've found smallmouth during flood conditions, their stomachs are full and they are not hesitant to take a lure if you can get it within their perception zone. I once found a bonanza of smallmouth on Big River when it was eight feet above normal. They were hanging atop a submerged gravel bar that was usually three or four feet out of the water, at the mouth of a feeder stream. There was gentle to moderate swirling current going over the gravel bar, which was just off the main river current. I'd gone down there to fish with worms and see if I could catch a few suckers or catfish, and instead caught a bunch of very nice smallmouth on the worms.

[Seth]

A guy who fishes our bass club caught two giant smallmouth last year during high water during late winter if I remember correctly. One was in the 5 range and the other broke the 6 pound mark. This was on the Gasconade near a feeder creek. There are some guys who love fishing high water but I haven't done it enough to figure it out yet.

[Greasy B]

What is all this flooding going to do to the smallie fishing?

Make it less accessible.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Make it hard to do until it goes down. happens every time.

[Jerry Rapp]

it will definitely eliminate a bunch of the litter bugs for a weekend or two.

[DADAKOTA]

I realize that the habitat will change. Some brush and laydowns gone and new ones deposited. Figure it may create some new holes and fill in others. Be like floating a new river.

[Greasy B]

And a little scary with new trees down. On the creek I frequent most it seems more holes will fill in than gouge out, not the equilibrium you would hope for. One thing that is interesting is the displaced fish. When the water drops out after big floods I often catch nice fish in very skinny water. Its as though they lost their home and ended up in places they would not normally be found.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Yeah you do have to float smart after this much high water. The important thing is to give yourself an escape when approaching blind spots.

[LittleRedFisherman]

I feel like high water and floods are the the cycle of a healthy river. Now there will be new habitat, new scoured out holes, new trees and brush. This is just a normal cycle of a river, the smallies will be just fine. Some feel the fishing is better after a big water even, I plan to find out next week!